Editor's note: On February 18, 2021, professor Kristofer M. Schipper, a world-renowned sinologist and Taoist master, traveled to the Netherlands. With the support of Patrice Fava, a disciple of Mr. Meng Shizhouren, we would like to share a short video of Shi Zhouren and him on a field trip to Hunan in April 1999 as a memorial to the anniversary of Mr. Shi's death.
The First Journey to Hunan, Photographed by Patrice Fava; Edited by Pu Minfeng; Producer: Tao Jin; Hunan Translator: Tian Yan. (25:58)
Before becoming an anthropologist, Van Hua often attended the "Venus Walk" rally hosted by André Breton at Les Halles (The Bazaar des Congres de Paris). Thirty years later, his surreal sense of sensibility led him to the flea market in southern China, where he discovered these unusual wooden idols and gave him the idea of finding out. Over the years, as if by magic, statues of the same kind from all over the world came to him with new puzzles. Accompanied by Mr. Shi Zhouren, the author came to the central region of Hunan Province for the first time to begin his exploration journey. Most of the Heavenly Officials of the Taoist Gods are composed of Dao Chiefs, Marshals, Immortal Maidens, Ancestors, Patriarchs, and Saints, and the Heavenly Books they hold are sometimes the customs clearance documents for their entry into the Heavenly Court, and sometimes their performances.
Aux Portes du ciel : la statuaire tao ste du Hunan, patrice Fava, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, cole fran aise d'Extrême-Orient, Published december 19, 2012, French, 544 pp.
This book is the result of more than ten years of fieldwork by the author in Hunan Province, China. It all begins with a chance encounter at a flea market in southern China, when he stumbles upon several colorful wooden deities with deliberate intentions, some of which are Taoist deities. The intention not only details the time of making the idol, the name of the idol, the place where the statue is placed, the reason for the statue and the wish to place it on it, but also records the name of the believer and some data on local history. Spending countless days and nights in central Hunan Province, the authors decipher the mysteries of the large number of intentions hidden in more than 2,000 deities, most of which were produced in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Not only has no one ever found a similar deity in other parts of China, but in Hunan, a southern Chinese province, is inhabited by a large number of Taoists and virgins who have passed on the very ancient culture of Taoism, and it is they who have gradually unveiled the mystery of this belief that originated in ancient China, which is easily reminiscent of the worship of gods and immortals in the era of Laozi and Zhuangzi.
By comparing the textual data collected in the 15th-century Daozang with the rituals of the Taoists in Hunan Province, the reader's established impression of China is subversive, and a large number of local characteristics are recorded in the book, because Taoist customs are different in different parts of China. Hunan and its statue art will open a new chapter in history for Taoist culture, which forms the core element of Chinese culture and thought.
Taking the perspective of an anthropologist as an entry point, this book focuses on the exploration of Taoist culture and art in Hunan, and is not only aimed at Chinese readers. The book is not limited to the study of China, and the authors refer to claude Lévi-Strauss, Philippe Descola, Clifford Geertz or Alfred Gell, among others, and use Marcel Gauchet's philosophical theories and surrealist cultural heritage are supported by a more in-depth exploration of religion. The large number of unpublished rich illustrations accompanying the text provides the reader with indispensable first-hand data for a better understanding of Taoism, a living traditional culture.
"The Deification of Taoists and Mages in Hunan: A Microscopic History of Taoist Deities in Xinhua County", by Patrice Fava, Taipei: New Wenfeng Publishing Company, Hong Kong: Si Se Yuen, published on November 1, 2021.
Hunan Province has preserved a rich Taoist cultural heritage. The author has studied Hunan Taoism for more than 20 years, and also collects a large number of gods, god maps, scientific instruments and magic tools. In view of the fact that many scholars at home and abroad do not distinguish between Taoist and mage idols, he specially wrote this book to reveal the deification of Daoists and mages in Chinese history. In the author's collection, there are more than one hundred and twenty statues of Taoist priests and mages from Xinhua County in Hunan Province alone. These deities were carved between the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Through years of fieldwork and research on the "will" of the illuminated documents inside the dirty boxes of the idols, he described and analyzed the identity of each idol. The author hopes that this microhistory of Taoism will inspire generations of scholars to continue to study the Statue of Hunan.
Patrice Fava, a French anthropologist, a co-researcher at the Beijing Center of the French Far East Institute (EFEO), and a co-researcher at the Center for Taoist Studies at Chinese Min University, has lived in China for more than 30 years and has devoted himself to Taoist research and documentary filming. Based on more than ten years of research in Hunan and with the financial support of Chiang Ching-kuo's International Academic Exchange Foundation, he set up a research program on "Taoism and Local Society". He has published several papers in Chinese, English and French, including "The Tao to Heaven: A Study of Hunan Taoist Deities, Art and Anthropology" (Aux portes du ciel). La statuaire tao ste du Hunan: Art et anthropologie de la Chine, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, EFEO, 2013) and The Deification of Taoists and Mages in Hunan: A Microhistory of Taoist Deities in Xinhua County (Part 1 and Part 2, Xinwenfeng Publishing Company, 2022).